


in the fire with you

by whollyunholy



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - MMO, Alternate Universe - Real World, Alternate Universe - Sports, Catra's a streamer, Ensemble Cast, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Harold they're gamers, POV Alternating, Slow Burn, Trans Catra (She-Ra), World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, there’s no tag for an e-sports au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:21:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27062575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whollyunholy/pseuds/whollyunholy
Summary: Adora was once the star hitter for the University of Brightmoon's baseball team. She was considered her school’s greatest of all time, and she defined herself by that greatness. But following a career-ending injury she floundered, struggling to know who she was if she wasn’t the best. Turning to the game of her childhood for comfort, she finds a new identity for herself. She’s She-ra, a paladin, main tank and raid lead for her friends’ newly formed mythic raiding guild, Grayskull. Maybe it’s just a game, but she’s the best at it. She has to be.Catra’s an up and coming twitch streamer, popular for her big mouth, bad attitude, and for being one of the greatest arena gladiators of the game’s present age. Adora’s convinced she’s exactly the player Grayskull needs to give them an edge. But when Catra’s every bit as good as people say, Adora’s very understanding of herself is challenged once again.A world of warcraft au.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Light Hope/Mara (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora and Glimmer disagree about what's best for the guild (and for Adora.) Catra growls a lot. Double Trouble causes problems on purpose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adora plays a paladin, because of the whole holy warrior with sword and healing and protecting others shtick. They throw their shields at things and it bounces around and comes back and I'm pretty sure Adora did that once. It's a good fit, trust me.
> 
> Catra plays a class that turns into a cat. That's the joke, I hope you like it. We're gonna be hitting it pretty hard.  
> 
> 
> Also: this chapter, and many chapters to follow will contain (mild, i think) descriptions of digital fantasy violence. I've chosen to write the combat scenes as "actual" combat, with references to game mechanics, rather than as a simple description of game mechanics. Because I think that's more interesting. Generally, I don't think it's anything much more graphic than you would see in the actual show, and WoW plays to a pretty cartoony aesthetic too, so expect things about in that range.
> 
> I just thought I'd mention it.
> 
> gonna be running a kind of searchable glossary of relevant terms over [here.](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mhsg_j5O3Y0jfcGAZo95JJk4mQL5dhV_eIcDoJxZ-LY/edit?usp=sharing) terms will be in something like the order they are used and sorted by chapter so feel free to just have this open in another tab if u need the guide

Adora couldn’t believe it was finally happening. It felt like a dream come true. She, along with Bow and Glimmer, her best friends in the world, would be starting their own guild. She’d been playing this game for thirteen years, since she was just ten years old, and it had been the source of some of her most treasured, and most painful, memories. And now she’d finally be playing it exactly the way she wanted. 

Adora had been part of a lot of guilds over the years. Some, like her and her friends’ previous guild, _Power_ , were full of good people, but lacked the competitive drive she and her friends were now seeking. Others like her old guild _Fear_ had been plenty competitive, but with no real sense of camaraderie. Now she would be the one to set the difficulty of the content they attempted, and the tone for the community they wanted to build. They only needed twenty good players to do it, and they were almost there.

“But that still only gives us seventeen,” Bow said, snapping Adora back to the conversation she’d been spacing out of.

Bow scrunched up his face, thinking hard. “Who haven’t we thought of? I refuse to believe there aren’t twenty good raiders on Despondos.” 

Adora thought hard, too. Despondos, the server they played on was on the smaller side for a World of Warcraft server. The a lot smaller side. But it was the one they’d played on for years, and that same small population had fostered a strong sense of community among the server’s players. People knew each other, and generally treated each other a hair better than you might find on other servers. Reputation mattered here. 

“There are,” Glimmer chimed in, “But most of those players have committed guilds, friends they’d rather raid with, and aren’t interested in pushing harder difficulties.” 

This was true. Although back in the early days of the game Despondos guilds had tackled the likes of Naxxramas, The Black Temple and Ice Crown Citadel, since the introduction of Mythic difficulty in the Mists of Pandaria expansion, Despondos had lacked any kind of high end raiding. “People just don’t do that on servers as small as ours,” was the general attitude. “If you want to do that kind of thing, transfer to Barthilas or Frostmourne.” 

“Maybe we’re looking in the wrong place then?” Adora, now. “We’ve scoured Raider IO, asked anyone with a score above 2k or an Ahead of the Curve achievement, and we’re still stuck. But what about PvP? Arena players include some great healers, and their meta favours the exact kinds of healers we’re looking for.” 

By this Adora meant that the current strongest Healer specialisations in player vs player content were holy paladins and discipline priests, both valued for their high damage output complimenting their healing, and also highly valued in raiding for their ability to reduce and mitigate incoming damage, rather than just heal it once it had already happened. 

“Do arena players even want to raid, though? I mean, I know there’s usually some must-have trinket for PvP in the latest raid, but will they stick around once they’ve got it? Also,” Glimmer grimaced, “Everything I've seen from them is like... really elitist.”

“Glimmer!” Bow admonished her, “That’s just a stereotype. Of course the toxic arena players get the most attention, but they’re not all like that. I think that’s a great idea, Adora.” Adora smiled, reassured. Bow quickly pulled up the arena rankings of their server. “Looks like the top rated healer on Despondos is a Discipline Priest called DoubleTrouble. Disc is good! We could always use another of those.” Bow clicked through to their profile. “It looks like they play 3v3’s with... Wait, Rogellio? No way. I knew he played Arena but I had no idea he was this good.”

“He is a pretty quiet dude,” Adora pointed out. “Guess he doesn’t like to boast.” Adora was surprised too, but she was proud of her friend.

“That’s great, if Rogelio already knows them that could be our in. It said they played 3’s, I wonder if their third would be interested as well? Looks like they play with a druid – ah, probably running a Jungle Cleave composition then – called – oh! Catra.”

“A-ha! Told you!” Glimmer shouted. “Those arena players, toxic the lot of them” she said smugly.

“Glimmer… Rogelio plays with these two, and we know he’s not toxic. We should give DoubleTrouble a chance, even if they do play with someone with… that kind of reputation.”

“Wait,” Adora said, “Who’s Catra? Do you two know them? What’s their deal?”

Glimmer sighed. “She’s just some streamer who’s extremely rude to her opponents _and_ her fans… even if they’ve supported her through everything,” she said, provoking a raised eyebrow from Adora. 

“Okay... so, you don’t like this Catra person. But we need another healer. I’ll talk to Rogelio later and get him to talk to Double Trouble for us. Sorry, Glimmer. You’re being overruled. Right, Bow?”

“Yeah. Sorry Glimmer.”

“Ugh! Whatever! Do what you want.”

>Glimmer has disconnected from the call.

“That… was a strong reaction,” Adora said, after they’d both sat in silence for a few moments. 

“Yeah, well, she has her reasons.”

“It sounds like there’s a story there,” said Adora, probing for details.

Bow nodded. “Hah, there definitely is, but you’d have to ask Glimmer. It’s probably not my place to tell it.”

Adora set her curiosity aside for the moment. “I’m still surprised I’ve never heard of this Catra. What do you know about her? Is she good?”

“Yeah, she’s good. I mean, you have to be to be in a rank 1 arena team, even on a little server like ours, right? But I’ve also run some higher keys where she was in the group, and she did like, a ton of damage, handled mechanics, even provided some decent off healing. She was actually a really supportive player… in her actions if not her words. I guess that’s the kind of thing PvP makes you good at. Wait, you’re not actually thinking about recruiting her are you?”

“I mean… if she’s good… and we still need two more, even if we do get DoubleTrouble.”

“Yeah but she’s, like, Feral,” Bow said. 

“Bow! She sounds a little rough around the edges but she can’t be that bad.”

“No I mean she-” The cheeky grin on Adora’s face revealed she was joking. “Feral” of course actually referred to the melee Druid specialisation, who transform themselves into wild cats to deal damage. “You are _such_ a dork. I can’t believe I agreed to form a guild with you.”

“I mean, I see your point though,” Adora said, ignoring Bow’s _rudeness_. “We have five melee already, and Feral doesn’t exactly bring any essential utility… but if she’s that good, maybe it’ll just work? Like I know it’s not the optimal comp, but we can play around it.”

“Yeah, we probably can. But I’m not gonna lie, this is gonna be a hard sell to Glimmer. I’d be surprised if she even agrees to meet with her.”

“Well, if you can get her to agree to that, I’ll take care of the rest,” Adora promised.

“Okay, well, assuming we do get Catra though, which is a big assumption, that last spot has to be Ranged.”

“Yeah, it really does. Do you think... Uh, do you think Hordak’s forgiven us?” Adora asked hesitantly.

“What, for convincing all his players, including Entrapta, the only person he actually likes, to rise up against him and come help us form our own guild? _Probably not_.” 

Hordak had been the GM of Fear, and the guilds Fear and Power had been rivals for ages. Hordak was a great Warlock, and wasn't fundamentally a bad dude, but in the position as GM and pushed on by his former Raid Leader, a terrifying Shadow Priest people were still scared to so much as name, he’d become something of a tyrant. Adora had spoken to his former players, and they’d all said that as long as Hordak wasn’t in charge of anything, they wouldn’t mind if he joined their new guild. Fear’s raid lead, on the other hand, was definitely not welcome. But Hordak hadn’t responded to any of Adora or Bow’s messages.

“But, the dude loves raiding. And he cares about Entrapta. He’s gotta come around eventually.”

“I hope so,” said Bow, sadly. “For Entrapta’s sake at least.”

\---------

“Need an assist, kitten.”

Double Trouble’s lilting voice came through Catra’s headset.

She glanced over and saw the enemy team’s rogue chasing down her friend and healer, hard. “On it.”

Catra had to break from the mage she’d been pursuing, but she could give him something to remember her by. She swiped him with her massive claws, raking them across his back, and then followed with a more powerful and precise strike, ripping deep. That’d leave him hurting.

“Bleeds on mage, Rogelio, keep pressure on him. We need to bait that ice block before his healer’s defensive cooldowns come back up. I’ll have Incarn up in 10.” No response, but she didn’t need one. Rogelio would get it done. As she retreated from the mage, she jumped, turned 180 in midair, and called down a beam of scalding moonfire against her enemy before landing again, facing the same direction. Shortly after, she saw the mage encase himself in a block of ice to escape her and Rogelio’s onslaught. As the rogue came into her range she charged to him wildly, dazing him, allowing Double Trouble to get some distance. She then retreated from the rogue before he could turn on her, melding into the shadows. 

“I have damage. Wait for mage to thaw, then gonna rake to stun on rogue, Rog you interrupt healer, I’ll bash and ‘clone, trap the rogue, DT hit healer with psychic scream if the mage isn’t already dead.”

“On your mark, kitten.”

Catra leapt from the shadows, raking the rogue with her claws and stunning him before dashing back to the mage. At the same time, Rogelio interrupted the holy paladin’s attempted spell cast with a quick smack across the jaw. Catra summoned wild druidic energies from within, becoming the very incarnation of the jungle and pounced on the mage. She slashed at him brutally, shredding and maiming, rendering him helpless. The enemy paladin was attempting another healing cast, and Catra leapt at him, headbutting him and knocking him off balance, then bashed him across the head with a mighty paw, incapacitating him further.

She saw a net tossed across the battlefield entangle the rogue, no longer stunned by her surprise attack, but now rooted in place. More slashing and shredding, following by a ferocious bite to the helpless mage. Catra demorphed, taking her Night Elven form and summoning a great cyclone, tossing the barely recovered paladin into the air and holding him there helplessly. Rogelio’s frost trap went spinning out towards the rogue, freezing him in place just as he managed to escape the net. Retaking her feral form, a few seconds later by her and Rogelio’s combined efforts the mage fell.

They both turned towards the rogue, ready to pursue, but victory was a formality at this point. Three against two, the other team quickly forfeited the match.

“EZ GG,” said Catra.

“You’re all welcome for knowing me, darlings,” crowed Double Trouble.

 _!!!!_ was all Rogelio typed in chat.

“Ok boys and birls, I’m gonna grab a drink, up for another in a minute if you are,” Catra said, gently lifting Melog out of her lap to many meows of protest, and dropping her headset on the desk. She walked to the fridge and grabbed another Monster energy. Only her third today, it was fine. She leant back against the kitchen counter and stayed there, sipping at her drink for a few minutes and revelling in her victory.

It had taken her years to get to this point. Thirteen, to be precise. When she’d first started playing she’d been immediately drawn to the druid class. Not to be a total cliché, but shapeshifting did have its appeal when you were young, trans, and struggling with a lot of new feelings you weren’t yet able to put a name to. And feral druids, well. They were kitty.

Of course, Catra had been good from the start. But finding a team of players who could keep up with her, _and who stuck around_ , she thought bitterly, had proven a challenge. But now she had that in Double Trouble and Rogelio, playing the powerful Jungle Cleave comp that relied on Feral’s and Survival hunter’s high sustained damage across multiple targets to rot the enemy team’s health and drain their healer’s mana until the enemy was vulnerable. Double Trouble, playing Discipline Priest, provided their team’s own healing, plus decent additional damage to round out their own.

And now, the three of them were rank one on the server, and somewhere in the top 100 worldwide. 

When she got back to her desk she slipped her headset back on and dropped herself down in the seat “Alright bitches, who’s up for another round?”

“Hii Catra,” sung Double Trouble. “Rogelio said he had to go. Had a real interesting conversation while you were gone though.”

“Hm?” An interesting conversation with Rogelio? Catra had a hard time imagining it.

“Oh yeah. Apparently I’m a hot ticket item. You know that new guild Rog joined?”

“No.”

“Well, if you paid attention when other people spoke, you would. But yeah apparently they like, want me to come heal for them.”

“God, not this again.” Catra scoffed. It wasn’t that uncommon for guilds to approach her or Double Trouble. I mean, she was the best player on the server, and everyone knew it. And, well, Double Trouble was pretty good too, she supposed. They got more offers on account of healers being in higher demand though. Obviously that was the reason. “How many times do you have to tell these people you’re not interested in PvE?”

I mean sure, running keys was one thing. You practically had to do it at this point in the game to have anything like decent enough gear to succeed in the arena. But those were over with quickly, you only had to put up with 4 strangers who probably weren’t even talking to each other, and then never see them again. But progression raiding? That was 10 to 30 people, night after night, struggling on the same boss all for the sake of some fleeting sense of group accomplishment.

“Like, they should know by now that we don’t do that teamwork crap.” 

“Uh, kitten, what you, me and Rogelio do is teamwork.”

“No it’s not! We’re not a team, we’re just Us. It’s Us work.” And also Catra was kind of in charge and she actually liked Double Trouble (not that she would admit it) and Rogelio was, well, he was quiet and did what she said.

“Sure, Catra. Anyway… I was thinking of accepting.”

“WHAT!”

“This isn’t like those other podunk guilds that are always bothering us, I checked out their raid logs and I think these guys might be really good. And I’d be the last healer they need to start pushing mythic, and, well, you know I love a challenge.”

“Oh.” That was all Catra said for a few moments. “How – how much time would it take up?”

“Hmmm, probably a few nights a week it sounds like. We might need to cut back on our arena hours for a while. Would that be alright with you, kitten?”

Catra was silent for a while longer, a familiar feeling building in her stomach and rising to her chest. That fear of abandonment, quickly turning to anger and threatening to spill out against anyone who got in its way. She gritted her teeth and pushed it back down.

“Fine. It’s whatever, hope you have fun.”

“Thanks! Oh, and one last thing before you go?”

“What is it.”

“They did ask for you too, yknow. Buut I figured you wouldn’t be interested.”

Catra’s hands shot up to her face, palms digging into her eyes. “Rrrrrghhhhhhh,” she growled, but felt the corners of her mouth twitch upwards. Double Trouble was such a fucking troll, but they also knew exactly how to play her. “I’ll think about it.”

\---------

“I cannot believe I let you talk me into this. Wait, how did you talk me into this?”

“Come on, Catra, what’s the harm in hearing them out? Are you that scared of just talking to people?” Double Trouble chided her.

“No! Shut up!” Her voice squeaked when she yelled.

She _was_ nervous though. She didn’t want to be grilled, to have her worth questioned and have to defend it. She didn’t have it in her. Either they wanted her, or they didn’t. She wasn’t going to put herself out there trying to convince them. It was that thought in her head, as she sat there in that voice channel waiting for their “interview” to start when three users suddenly joined.

Bow, Glimmer, and Adora. Jeez, who named these people.

“Hi Catra, Double Trouble. Thanks for coming today.” The one called Glimmer was speaking, taking a professional tone.

“Yeah yeah. Is this going to take long?” Catra asked.

“Uh, it shouldn’t-”

“Good.” Catra cut Glimmer off.

“Okay… well, to start with, are your character names the names you want us to call you, or would you prefer real names? Most of the guild’s on a first name basis but there’s no pressure for either of you to be.”

“Double Trouble’s fine babe, but my friends call me DT.”

“Catra is my real name,” Catra growled.

“Oh! Ok. Well, that’s something I never knew.” Glimmer let out a nervous laugh.

“A-aanyway,” Bow took over, “As Glimmer said, we’re really glad you agreed to meet with us. We really need another healer.” Catra rolled her eyes. “And we do still have two spots left open for dps. We’ve seen your arena rankings, and you probably don’t remember, Catra, but I’ve been in a few keys when you were also there, so we know how good you both are as players. You really have nothing to prove here.”

To her great chagrin, Catra felt some of the tension ease off her shoulders. 

“We just wanna get a feel for what you’d be looking for in a guild and, y’know, get to know you both a little bit,” Bow continued.

Catra felt some of that tension come back.

“We’re an open book, aren’t we Catra?” Double Trouble spoke up, and Catra growled off mic. Did they have to tease her this much, all the time?

“What do you want to know.” Catra said, curtly.

“I guess to start with, how long have you both been playing?”

“Since 2007.” If Catra had to do this, she wasn’t going to give answers any longer than she strictly had to.

“Oh! Me too!” The one called Adora finally said something. 

“Uh, yeah?” Catra’s own response caught her off guard, caught up in the other girl’s enthusiasm.

“Yeah! I loved The Burning Crusade. I’d heard about WoW before but then someone showed me this new playable race, Draenei, and, they just, y’know, the uh. Horns, and the hooves, uh…” Adora trailed off, embarrassed.

Catra laughed at the other girl getting caught up in her own excitement and perhaps revealing a little more about herself than she meant to.

“Ohhh. This is _that_ kind of guild, huh?” Catra poked at Adora, nerves leaving her for a moment. 

“No! It’s a normal guild. Uh, totally regular. Just standard.” Adora blushed. 

“Sure, sure,” Catra teased. Draenei _were_ cool though. Horns and hooves were a strong look.

“Well, yeah, so, I rolled my first paladin back then, and luckily they turned out pretty strong in BC, even if it took people a while to realise it. And I’ve pretty much been playing one ever since.” Adora concluded her little story.

Glimmer interjected, “Adora got us into the game like, four years ago, it took her a while but she kept telling us it was her favourite and that we had to try it. We’re like, total noobs compared to her.” 

“That’s not true! You and Bow are like, super good at this. Actually I was kind of jealous how quickly you took to it, I spent years just having no clue what I was doing, and you guys were raiding and doing top dps in just a couple months!”

“Well, we did have a good teacher,” said Bow.

Catra rolled her eyes. “Do you three like, need a room?” This shit was tooth-acheingly sweet. In Catra’s scene, the only time you even commented on someone else’s gameplay was to tell them to stop _sucking_ and pull their fucking weight.

Bow cleared his throat. “Right, so! What about you, DT?”

“Oh, kitten here got me into the game a couple years ago, like you. We met playing Overwatch and she said I should come play a “real game”, that she needed a partner who wouldn’t hold her back in arena, said we could do great things together.”

“And what about Rogelio? How do you two know him?” Adora asked.

Okay, Catra liked telling this story. “Well, me n DT wanted to get into 3v3 and figured jungle cleave was the way to go so we like, went through the hunters on the server starting from the top and were just like, “Hey, switch to Survival spec and come play Arena with us”, and Rog was the first dude we successfully bullied into it.” She laughed.

“Wait! I remember that!” Bow was shouting. “It had totally slipped my mind but I remember getting a message just like that like, a year ago!”

“You shoulda said yes, just think what coulda been.”

Bow performed the audible equivalent of a shrug. “I don’t really like playing Survival though. Marksman for life.” 

“I get it. I don’t really like Boomie,” Catra offered.

“Well, that actually answers one of our other questions,” Glimmer spoke up. “You uh, you don’t play Balance?” Balance was druid’s ranged caster specialisation. They transformed into great owlbears, or Moonkin, to enhance their spells. Affectionally called Boomkin when they did big damage, or “Boomie” for short.

Catra scoffed. “The chicken spec? No, I don’t play Balance.”

“Ok... What about Restoration? Some fights might require additional healers and-” Glimmer continued, but Catra cut her off.

“I don’t. Heal.”

“Right. And you don’t play any alts?” Glimmer rolled her eyes.

“No.” 

“That’s fine!” Bow chimed in helpfully, “Like, we’re totally happy for you to play Feral. What Glimmer is trying to get at is just, if there was a fight that was really punishing for melee, you might be asked to sit out. Kyle, Scorpia and Lonnie all bring raid buffs, Frosta has Anti-Magic Shell, and Seahawk brings an immunity with Cloak of Shadows, so depending on the fight we might not be able to bench them either. And I know your damage is good, but Feral doesn’t bring any of that kind of utility. So, in that situation,” Bow was careful to emphasise those words, “it might be you that we have to swap out. Would you be okay with that?”

“What, are you worried it’d hurt my feelings? Yes. That would be fine. I’m not that desperate to be here.”

“Ok! We just have to ask, ‘coz some people new to mythic raiding can find the transition a bit jarring and, yeah, it can hurt their feelings. Like Glimmer said, if you did want to avoid that you could always pick up a ranged alt to play on those fights, provided you were willing to gear it. But that’s just an option,” Bow clarified, a little flustered by her standoffish response.

“Do you even have anyone you could sub in? The way DT described it you guys seemed like you were struggling to get the bare minimum,” Catra said, ignoring his suggestion. 

“Uhhhhh.”

“Well…”

“No.” Adora’s voice cut off the other two.

“Adora!!” 

Glimmer gathered herself. “What Adora means is,” Catra could hear the forced smile even if she couldn’t see it. “We don’t have anyone yet. But we’ll find more people. We need a bench anyway, in case someone is sick, or busy, or whatever.”

“Uhuh.” Catra said, sounding deliberately unconvinced.

There was an uncomfortable silence for several moments, until Double Trouble helpfully added, “ _I’m_ quite capable of playing Shadow if needed.”

“Oh! That’s actually great. See, what we really need is someone to be our fifth healer on fights where that’s needed, but to play dps the rest of the time. Hope was willing to do it, but she’s not as confident with Shadow as she is with Discipline. Would you be happy playing Shadow on most fights?” asked Glimmer, as Catra rolled her eyes again.

“Totally. I can play any role,” Double Trouble said smugly.

“So does that mean you’ve always played a feral druid?” Adora asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Huh?” Catra was a little thrown off by the question. “Well, yeah. Ever since I started playing.”

“That’s cool.” Adora said, nodding sagely. “They’re kitty.”

“Uh, yeah… they are.” Huh. 

“Sooo…” Bow interrupted, trying to get them back on track. “As Rogelio probably explained, we are gonna have a three night raiding schedule, three hours each night, Wednesday, Thursday and Monday, starting 7pm with a 10 minute break somewhere in the middle. We don’t push people to stay late, we figure if we want people to commit, we should be perfectly clear about what they’re committing to. That said, if we’re really close to a kill and everyone wanted to keep going, we can always do that. For those situations we have a system set up that allows everyone to vote anonymously, and if anyone votes no, we’ll call the night there. Of course, outside of those situations it’s always possible that combat started before 10 will extend past it.”

Glimmer took over, “Our expectations for our raiders are simple and, we think, fair. You should be online and at the raid entrance 10 minutes before raid starts, ready to pull on 7. Enhancements may be provided by the guild, but raiders should not rely on this, so you should come ready with stat food, flasks, combat and health potions and so on. Enchant-able gear should be enchanted and socketed gear should be gemmed with appropriate level enchantments and gems.” She sounded like she’d rehearsed this bit.

Bow continued their joint spiel. “Loot dropped in raid, when tradeable, will be distributed based on a weighted assessment of its respective value to individual raiders. However gear that drops for you is, first and foremost, yours, until you declare that you don’t need it. But if you don’t need it we don’t want you to just pass it to a friend, or, like, auction it off to the highest bidder. I only mention that because I’ve actually seen it happen. The value and assignment of loot is determined by our quartermaster – we just call her that to be fancy – Entrapta.”

“Wait, Entrapta?” Catra asked, confused. “Like, plays a demonology warlock better than you thought was possible Entrapta?”

“That does sound like our Entrapta, yes” Bow laughed.

“Jeez I like, live with her.”

“Whaaat, no way!” Adora perked up. “That means you must live with Scorpia too?”

“Scorpia’s in your guild? Why didn’t she mention tha-” Catra stopped herself, realising Scorpia probably had. “God, what is up with this server. How does everyone just know everyone?”

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Adora asked. Catra could not believe how genuine she sounded.

“It’s definitely _something_.” Catra did not like the way disparate areas of her life might be about to collide. She also didn’t like the feeling of guilt that built in her stomach when she thought about playing with Scorpia again.

“So,” Glimmer said. “Those are our expectations. Do you have any you want to make clear to us?”

“Uh, I guess I didn’t think about it. Just don’t drop us for some shitty players just coz they’re your friends I guess,” Catra said.

“Got it. We won’t do that,” said Bow. 

“Ok, cool. Oh and if shit gets _weird_ , like, _Drama Time_ weird, I’m out. I’m not here for that clique-y, power-tripping bullshit.”

“I am!” Double Trouble joked.

“Well, a lot of the guild is formed of people trying to get away from that environment in other guilds so, I think we’re pretty much on the same page there,” said Glimmer.

There was silence for a few seconds, and then, “Well I think we’d be happy to have you both,” Adora offered, smiling. 

Glimmer, taken aback, “Uh, Adora? We definitely had more questions.”

“Oh, yeah, but I think we got everything we need to know, right?”

“Uh, did we?” Bow asked.

“Yes! Next time you’re both in game send me a whisper and I’ll invite you to the guild. My character’s name is She-ra.”

> Adora has disconnected from the call.

“Uh,” said Catra, Glimmer, Bow and Double Trouble.

“Cool! See ya!” said Double Trouble, urging Catra to leave with them while they were ahead.

\---------

“Adora! What was that about?!” Glimmer scolded her friend.

“Yeah, if I’d known this was what you meant when you said you’d “take care of the rest” I wouldn’t have agreed to this plan” said Bow, echoing Glimmer’s disappointment. _“Hold up, there was a plan?” Glimmer said quietly, mostly to herself._

“I don’t see the problem, we were gonna recruit them anyway! We’re desperate!”

“We might be desperate, but…” Bow took a deep breath. “We don’t want to _look_ desperate. We don’t want players who feel they can walk all over us. If they know we can’t afford to lose them, what’s to stop them showing up late, or threatening to leave any time they don’t get their way?”

“And,” Glimmer added, “Catra didn’t have anything like the attitude _we_ agreed we were looking for. She was hostile practically the entire time.”

“Huh? She seemed fine to me,” Adora said, confused.

“Did she now,” said Glimmer suspiciously.

“She just seemed, y’know, nervous. And you guys were about to scare her off.” Adora had known girls like Catra. She’d known… a lot… of girls like Catra.

“Jesus Christ, Adora.” Glimmer muttered under her breath. “Is this another one of your… ugh,” Glimmer pinched her brow, lowering her voice further, “I fucking knew this would happen.”

“What Glimmer means to say is,” Bow cut in, “You’re not doing that thing where you… y’know…”

“What. What thing.”

Glimmer continued for Bow, “That thing where you get instantly attached to a girl because she’s like, rude and abrasive, but you think it’s just because she’s hurting and what she really needs is just someone who has faith in her so she can learn her true value and open up to people?” 

“I don’t. I don’t do that. That’s not a thing.”

“It is, Adora, and it’s Bow and I who always have to pick up the pieces when you get hurt because it turns out they were actually rude and abrasive because, like, they just weren’t nice people!”

“They were all nice people! I mean, I don’t even know who you’re talking about…” Adora sighed. “Look, I’m not doing that. She’s a good player. Probably the best we’re gonna get, and I just wanted to make sure we _got_ her. If she leaves, she leaves. And if she’s a bad fit, well… we can address it if it comes to that. That’s still time we can use to make progress and keep recruiting.”

Bow and Glimmer still looked unsure, but Adora wasn’t going to let them get too in their own heads when they should be celebrating. “Guys! We’ve got 19 players! We’re sooo close. Please just be excited.”

“Yeah, ok. You’re right.” Bow smiled. “This is the closest we’ve ever been, and we’ll find our 20th soon enough.”

“You still haven’t heard back from Hordak?” asked Glimmer.

“No, but, we will. Trust me. There’s like, no way that dude’s gonna tolerate mythic raiding going on on this server and not being a part of it. We start publicising that there’s only one raid spot still going, and he’ll come to us.” Adora was unusually confident, but she’d found herself in a good mood and was just gonna go with it.

\-----------------

What the fuck had just happened. Catra had turned up to the interview at Double Trouble’s insistence, somewhere in the back of her mind thinking she could always just tank the thing if it looked like it was going too well and she got scared and needed to keep things the way they were, the way she was comfortable with. Not that she would have, probably, because she was trying not to do those kinds of things anymore, but it had occurred to her as a back up. But then things did go kind of well, she thought, or at least that Adora girl seemed eager to have her, and that hadn’t scared her as much as the thought that things might not _keep_ going well.

To be honest, that woman had kind of thrown her. She’d said practically all of three things and yet by those few words she’d managed to inculcate a comfortable familiarity in Catra. She had let herself relax and now she felt foolish and embarrassed, like she did after a night of too much drinking. Like she’d said too much, too loudly and too openly. She would have to be more careful next time.

But, it seemed she had joined a guild now, and if the requirement to be social didn’t end up completely sucking ass she was a little excited for the potential challenges of raiding. She put on a show about not liking that kind of thing – and the fact that it was dependent on the abilities of nineteen other players who were _definitely_ not as good as her was a negative – but she hadn’t always avoided that side of the game. In her youth she’d sought out everything the game had to offer, tested herself on every challenge, but… she'd been more naive and less guarded then.

“Uuuuuuughhh.” Catra let out a groan, startling Melog. She quickly offered them an apologetic ear scritch. Well, whatever. This was happening. All she had to do was play better than everyone else and stick around long enough that when she left people would understand it was because she could do better. While keeping these people at arm’s length so as not to embarrass herself any further in the meantime. Simple enough, right? Easy for her. 

She clutched Melog tighter to her chest. This would be fine. Things were gonna go fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much if you read this! i realize that a wow au is maybe kind of a hard sell, like i don't think there's a huge overlap in interests there and it lacks the innate sexiness of girls playing sports. but if i might posit a simple reality: it's hot when girls plays video games good.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra and Adora do not have good days, (Mara does), but they find comfort running a dungeon together, even when it goes terribly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pug** \- acronym for Pick Up Group, describing a group of players who do not know each other but group up to complete some kind of content. Can be used as a verb - ie. "let’s pug an extra dps", or as a noun for an individual - i dont know that guy, he’s a pug. 
> 
> [Full glossary](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mhsg_j5O3Y0jfcGAZo95JJk4mQL5dhV_eIcDoJxZ-LY/edit)

Adora’s feet pounded against the unpaved but well trod path beneath her, conifer trees flying past on either side. The rising sun filtered through the firs, warming her bare skin when she passed through its rays. Her pre-dawn runs were one of the things that helped her feel grounded, an important part of the routine she had built for herself here, but this morning she found no escape from her thoughts. Things were going well, weren’t they? She was getting exactly what she wanted. So why was she sleeping so badly, why did she feel the closer she got to happiness the more that something was missing?

It had been a week since the newest recruits had joined Grayskull and despite Adora’s best efforts, she hadn’t managed to get Catra to engage with the guild at all. She’d thought they’d had a rapport during that first meeting, but now she couldn’t get so much as a “hi” when she greeted her in guild chat. Maybe she’d just misread things, or worse, somehow said something to mess them up since that first day, though she couldn’t think of what. 

The sun was just starting to peek above the trees as Adora made it back to her front door, brushing the sweat from her brow with one hand and reaching for her keys with the other. She didn’t need to, though, as the door swung open just as she reached for it and she was greeted by the smiling face of her sister, Mara. Adoptive sister, technically, but Adora had long stopped thinking of her as anything but just her big sister.

“Hey, made you a smoothie,” she said, passing Adora a cup of something pink and fruity smelling. 

“Okay…” Adora eyed the drink suspiciously before taking it and heading inside.

“...and I was wondering.” There it was. “If you were heading into town later?”

“No, Mara, I wasn’t. Why do you ask?” Adora already felt herself resigning to her fate.

“New game comes out today,” explained Mara. “Well, yesterday. Tony Hawk, Adora! Two of them! The Tony Hawks! I neeeed it,” she whined.

“Do you need it today? I was just gonna like, chill today.” And sleep. “Maybe visit Razz.” It had been a while, and she knew the elderly woman, their nearest neighbour, appreciated the company. 

“Oh! I can visit Razz. And, well, Hope was gonna come over tonight and we used to play the originals so I really wanted to play it with her. And I’ll cook dinner? And uhhh. Well, I don’t know what else, but this is the last time I’ll ask you to drive anywhere for me. I can drive again in a month!” Mara begged.

Adora sighed. She could hardly refuse to aid someone in their quest for gay romance. “You’re really gonna walk all the way to Razz’s?” Nearest neighbour was, here, a relative term. Razz lived at least a mile away.

“Yeah! My leg’s like, fully healed,” Mara reassured her. She’d broken it in the same crash that had lost her her license, out in the desert somewhere. 

“Well… if you’re sure. Just make sure you bring your phone with you.”

“Yay! Thanks Adora.” Mara hugged her, then ran off to her room, probably to text Hope.

Adora didn’t think she’d technically agreed to Mara’s request, but she and Mara had both known she was going to. Guess she was going back out. She headed for her room to grab a change of clothes, then headed for the shower.

\---------------

Catra’s day had been a complete disaster so far. As she stumbled into the game store, both hands loaded down with groceries, she cursed herself for not pre-ordering. I mean, she didn’t as a rule, because most games were never as good as they looked in trailers and it was just smart to wait for actual reviews to come out, but this was _Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater._ She’d spent hours playing the originals as a kid, shut away in the basement repeating the same series of tricks on halfpipes and grind rails until she got them perfect. And, evidently, so had millions of other people, so of course it was flying off shelves. 

A text from Entrapta, just as she was halfway done with the shopping had alerted her. That girl was in all the local games stores’ systems, tracking sales and returns and everything else. “Of course national and global sales numbers are easily available, but localised data is so much more interesting,” she’d said. 

So, Catra had sped through the rest of her mental shopping list and hoped she hadn’t missed anything before rushing off to buy something more important. _Priorities, Catra. Video games, then food. This is known,_ she’d scolded herself. As she rounded the corner, she saw her prize. _Yes!!_ One copy left, at least she had some luck. As she approached it she looked down to rearrange her shopping into one hand, then looked up only to find the copy, her copy, off the shelf and in the hands of some blonde.

“Son of a bitch!” Catra mutter under her breath. Apparently a little too loud, because at that moment the blonde woman looked up, and, “ _Son of a bitch,_ ” Catra muttered, practically whispering this time. The girl was pretty. Her blonde hair was put up in a tight pony tail and she was wearing a bright red varsity jacket.

“Agh, sorry,” Catra said, scrunching up her face and pinching her brow, partly to obscure her face from the gorgeous woman she’d just _sworn at._ “I was just, I mean, I was after the same game, but you got it, that’s fine.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s for my sister,” the woman said, offering a gentle apologetic laugh and standing up and looking down at the game in her hand. _Shit_ she was _tal_ l too? “If it wasn’t I guess I could let you have it,” she smiled sheepishly, looked down, then back up. “Or uh, I guess I probably wouldn’t if it was one I really wanted. Sorry.” 

Catra smiled, despite her sour mood. “Nah, I get it. Games before dames right.” The tall woman giggled, making Catra blush. _This is terrible, I have to get out of here,_ screamed every instinct in her body.

“I’m really sorry I took your game.” 

“It’s, yknow, whatever. They’ll probably restock soon.”

“Hey, if you were really desperate you could always come round and play this one,” joked the tall girl.

Catra smirked. “Hah. Right. If I was desperate.” She laughed. But the woman’s face dropped and she looked down and away. Wait, had she not been-

“Oh. Well, ok then.”

“I-”

“It’s fine, you don’t need to-” the woman sighed. “I’m sorry. Have a nice day.” She turned and left to pay for the game. 

Catra just stood there, stunned into silence as she watched the other girl leave. God fucking damnit.

Catra lay face down on her bed, angry with herself. Melog nudged affectionately at her. She groaned and rolled over, dragging her nails down her face, then sat up. 

“Helloooooo I’m hoooome!” came Scorpia’s cheery voice, ringing out through the house. Scorpia had startled Catra when she thought she’d been alone _one time_ and she’d leapt about five feet in the air, and Scorpia had felt so bad that now Catra had to put up with this every time she got back. 

“Hey wildcat,” Scorpia said, reaching her bedroom and leaning against the door frame. “How was your day? Did you get your game? Entrapta said she texted you.”

“My day was _fine_ and _no_ I didn’t, some,” Catra flailed her hands in front of her, “ _girl_ got the last one just as I got there. How was your thing?”

“It was great!!” Scorpia shouted, clasping her hands together. “Those kids they just, they really wanna play soccer.” She looked like she was gonna cry. Catra did not care for kids or sports, but she tried to be supportive. 

“That’s uh, good. I’m glad they’re having a good time.”

“Yeah, me too,” said Scorpia, smiling. “Soooo, uh, you mentioned a girl? What did that entail?” Ok, so Scorpia had picked up on that. Damn her for being a good listener. 

“It was nothing, just, the woman who took my game was all,” Catra made the same flailing hand gesture, “really friendly, and like, said I should come over to play the game, and I’m such a dumbass I thought it was a joke so I laughed at her. Then she left in a hurry. I think I made her feel bad about herself for like, putting herself out there.” Catra dropped her forehead onto her arms, which were wrapped around her knees. “And I know how that feels,” she mumbled.

“Oh, Catra.” Scorpia walked over and sat herself down on Catra’s bed, a respectful distance away. “I’m sorry you’re unhappy with how you reacted. But it was a simple mistake, and her reaction is on her, right?”

“Yeah, I guess,” said Catra, face still buried in her arms. 

“So why did you think she was joking?” Scorpia asked.

“I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t expect anyone to actually be interested. I wasn’t ready for it.”

Scorpia looked at her with sadness in her eyes. “People do like you, Catra. And there are people you haven’t met yet who will like you too. And before you object you know that Entrapta and I both like you a lot, right?”

“I- yeah. I know,” Catra said dejectedly.

“Good. So! D’you want a hug?” Scorpia asked enthusiastically, inching closer to Catra and spread her arms.

Catra rolled her eyes. “Okayyy.” She scooched down the bed still curled up in her fetal position and flopped over onto Scorpia, who wrapped her up in a tight embrace. It had taken a while – and a few conversations about boundaries – but Catra had come to genuinely enjoy these moments.

“Now next time you can react differently. We can learn from this,” Scorpia said.

Catra scoffed at the idea that there would be a next time. But she knew she was prone to arguing against herself when people tried to help her, and this always went quicker if she just went along with what Scorpia said. She usually agreed with it eventually anyway, if not in the moment.

She had always appreciated the practical nature of Scorpia’s advice. She never tried to solve everything at once. It was just, here’s a grounded take on the situation, here’s what we can learn from it. It helped a lot when Catra’s tendency was to catastrophize. Ugh. Why did Scorpia have to be so good to her. She was sure she didn’t deserve this. But she didn’t want to have that argument again, either. Instead she just said, “Thanks, Scorpia.”

“Any time, wildcat. Oh! By the way, I saw you’d joined Grayskull. That’s awesome! I can’t wait to play together again.”

“Yeah, uh, me too,” Catra mumbled. Scorpia hadn’t meant them to, but her words stung. Catra and Scorpia used to play together all the time, ever since Catra had moved in after moving to Brightmoon. Scorpia played an enhancement shaman (she liked the lightning), and was pretty good at it, but, as the years passed Catra had taken the game more and more seriously, wanting to push for higher and higher arena ratings and her temper had gotten too much for Scorpia, who’d left their little team after being yelled at for messing up some complicated play one too many times. 

There had been… other... factors too. But you could trace it all back to Catra’s temper and her lack of patience. Scorpia had always responded to her own weakness with care and support. But when Scorpia had needed the same in return, Catra had failed her.

It was around that time that she’d met Double Trouble who, luckily for Catra, could give as good as they got, and never required anything so sentimental from her. Speaking of, Catra wondered if they were around. She could use the distraction. 

\-----------------------

“Mara, I got your stupid game!” Adora shouted as she got home, tossing the bag with the game onto the kitchen counter and pouring herself a glass of water. With no response from Mara, she set that aside and pulled out her phone. Maybe she was still with Razz. Adora’s most recent texts confirmed her suspicions.

> hey so no big deal I’m FINE but could you maaybe come and get me from Razz’s place?

> I accounted for the walk here and back I did not account for the approximately three miles she had me run in her damn kitchen

> pleeeeease adora. Hope’s gonna be here in a couple hours and I’m not remotely ready. 

The last text was from about a half hour ago. Adora just sighed and went back out to her truck. It would be good to see Razz anyway, even for a little bit. 

But as Adora pulled up to Razz’s cabin she saw the front door open and her sister walk out. Mara popped open the passenger door and jumped in. 

“Come on come on we gotta go, I’ve got meal prep to do and I need to shower and let my hair dry before I do it up.”

Adora sighed again. _Guess I’ll catch up with Razz some other time._

“Hey Adora, dinner’s ready!” Mara called from the kitchen, just loud enough for Adora to hear over the music playing through her headphones. She pulled herself up from the bed where she’d been lying for the better part of an hour. She hadn’t been avoiding her sister and her would-be girlfriend, she liked Hope, had known her for years, and they had fun when the three of them hung out, but Adora knew Mara was hoping this night would be a turning point for their relationship and she didn’t want to crowd them. And just tonight, being around them maybe made her own loneliness just that bit more acute. She took off her headphones and put on a smile before heading to the kitchen.

“So, what’s for dinner?” Adora asked as she entered the kitchen/dining room/living area. “Hey Hope,” Adora smiled and waved. The woman at the dinner table had short cropped hair and was wearing formal business attire with something like pinstripes and some truly stunning shoulder pads. She must have come here straight from work. She made an odd pair with Mara, but Adora had to admit they were cute together.

“Hi Adora.” Hope smiled back at her. “How was your day?”

“It was…” Adora felt her face getting hot as she thought back to her embarrassing encounter. “It was whatever. Fine, I guess.”

Hope looked at her with concern. Back in high school, Mara’s mother had hired Hope to tutor Adora on the subjects she was struggling with. Which had been most of them. That was how Hope and Mara had met. She kept coming after Mara’s parents died, continued to tutor Adora and help Mara in other ways. She had been a good friend to them both, and she’d always looked out for Adora, but her bond with Mara had of late become something more.

Hope and Mara chatted as they ate, Adora mostly laughing along with them and not saying much herself. Mara had made moussaka, a mutual favourite and a meal her mother used to make for them. It carried fond memories for them both. Despite her best efforts, Adora knew her low mood was noticeable, and she picked up on a few more concerned glances from Hope. 

They tried to include her, talking about the guild and WoW stuff, the one thing they all shared. Mara played a paladin, she and Adora had that in common, but Mara specialised in healing as Holy spec, while Adora tanked as Protection. Mara and Hope were both on the heal team, and they talked about how their respective classes and specialisations had changed with the recent update that heralded the Shadowlands expansion proper. But when they asked her about the guild and recruitment and what their roster was looking like, Adora couldn’t bring herself to give more than short answers about how preparation for Shadowlands was going. 

When Mara got up to take their dishes to the kitchen, Adora went with her to help.

Mara dropped her plates in the sink, then turned to Adora. “Hey, are you alright? You’ve seemed off since you picked me up from Razz’s.”

“Yeah, I’m ok. I’m just… stressed about everything with _Grayskull_ , that’s all,” Adora lied.

“Well, you should come and hang out with me and Hope for a bit. Take your mind off things.”

“I wouldn’t wanna get in the way of your date,” Adora said meekly. Mara rolled her eyes.

“Adora, Hope’s been worried about you ever since she got here, ever since I mentioned you seemed off. She’s _meant_ to be “worrying” about me!” Mara did little air quotes around “worrying”. “So if you wanna not be in the way, come hang out, have a good time, and show Hope you’re doing okay.”

Although Mara framed the request as a selfish one, Adora knew she was actually offering for her sake. Mara knew her too well, knew she wouldn’t decline if she could plausibly frame it as being a selfless act.

Adora smiled and raised her hands, “Jeez, you got me. Fine, I’ll help wingman my useless sister. You happy now?” Adora teased. Mara shoved her in the shoulder.

“Very.”

\------------------------

Double Trouble had not been online, to Catra’s great disappointment. But she’d made do, settling into one of her favourite world PvP hunting grounds. Guo-lai Halls in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms was a perfect spot. Underground, isolated, still frequented regularly enough that she wouldn’t be waiting forever between prey, but not so frequently that she was liable to be interrupted. And since you couldn’t mount up or fly away, players were usually stuck in a cycle of resurrecting and being killed again until they took the hint and revived at a graveyard. It was an easy honor farm, but she wasn’t really in it for any tangible reward. It was just fun to to play the part of the apex predator, stalking her prey, lingering in the shadows when groups came through, waiting for them to be separated, and then disappearing for a new location when people finally caught on and sent a raiding party in to try and flush her out.

When no one turned up for a particularly dull twenty minute stretch – perhaps Catra had scared them all off – she turned to other distractions. She scrolled through twitter for a while but it was all miserable, checked to see if any of her favourite content creators had uploaded anything new about the upcoming expansion, Shadowlands – they hadn’t – and finally out of desperation flicked back to the game. She’d disabled guild chat til now, part of her effort to keep distance between her and the rest of the team, but now she opened it up and started scrolling back through the last few days of messages. There was the standard guild chatter, congratulations on achievements, people seeking additional players for dungeons and so on. A bunch of messages that made no sense out of context, where someone had typed in chat in response to some comment in some other channel or over discord. But also, three short messages that had been directed at her.

She-ra: hey catra

She-ra: hi catra :)

She-ra: running a quick +16 AD, catra do u wanna join?

Catra groaned, letting her head drop into her hands. All the messages had been from the first couple of days after she’d joined, but they’d stopped after that. She thought back to the woman in the store. She knew her aloofness could hurt people, but that wasn’t why she was the way she was, it just wasn’t about them. It frustrated her when other people cared about her enough to take it personally. Things would be easier if they just left her alone.

But… she didn’t want to keep hurting people. She still burned with shame when she thought about how things had ended with Scorpia. She didn’t have to be close to these people, but she’d be spending time with them anyway when the new raid opened up, it’s not like she was gonna be able to ignore them for ever. She could be courteous. She could engage like a normal fucking person for once. It wouldn’t kill her.

\------------------------

Adora shut the door to her room behind her and fell back against it, letting out a sigh. Mara’s distraction had worked, had made her feel better, and she’d put in a couple hours with her and Hope, being as cheery as she could. It hadn’t been too hard, the game really was a lot of fun, grinding rails and dropping into half pipes with as much speed as she could build up. But, then she’d noticed Mara and Hope getting closer, leaning against one another and paying less attention to the game and she’d taken that as her cue to leave. And for her feelings of isolation to return.

Looking for a new distraction, she sat down at her desk and switched on her PC, waiting for it to boot up. None of her mutuals were blogging at this time, no decent recommended youtube videos either. Finally, she booted up WoW. Maybe someone would still be up and wanting to do stuff, maybe run a key or something. And if not she could always just mindlessly complete some world quests for an hour. There was really no reason for her to do so anymore, but they still carried that little hit of accomplishing something that she needed.

Quickly logging into her paladin she opened up the guild tab. Just one person online – Catra. Just her luck. Well, Adora supposed she couldn’t possibly feel any more rejected today, at least. (She could, but Adora had always been as likely to double down on a bad hand as take the loss.) If Catra hadn’t been responding in guild chat, she would just need to take a more direct approach. She whispered the girl directly, WoW’s equivalent of sliding into her DMs.

[11:21] To [Catra]: hey. Super bored. Wanna run a key?

Adora stared at her message for a few seconds before sending it. Finally, she hit enter, and waited. Nearly a minute later when she had all but given up hope, the reply came.

11:22 [Catra] whispers: sure

11:22 [Catra] whispers: what you got?

Adora felt her heart lift. _Finally._ She checked her bags though she knew it was in vain. She didn’t have a mythic dungeon keystone, knew she didn’t, because she hadn’t done one last week. It was the end of the expansion, she didn’t need any upgrades, and she was bored of all the current dungeons.

11:23 To [Catra]: Uhhh. Nothing ^_^’ you?

11:24 [Catra] whispers: nada 

11:24 To [Catra] I guess we could pug?

11:24 [Catra] whispers: uuugh. Okay but if we’re stuck in like, Atal-Dazar for an entire hour I am Leaving.

11:24 To [Catra]: lol agreed. 

[You have invited Catra to a group.]

[Catra joins your group.]

11:25 To [Catra]: I’m not lookin for anything hard, just wanna let off a little steam. Cool?

11:25 [Catra] whispers: sure

11:26 To [Catra]: found a +9 freehold, needs a tank and a dps. Signing us up

11:26 [Catra] whispers: aight

11:26 To [Catra]: I’m in discord btw

Adora flew to the dungeon and helped summon the remaining group members with the party leader. She hadn’t necessarily expected Catra to join her on voice, but she was still a little disappointed when she didn’t without so much as a reply. The dungeon might serve as a distraction, but what she had really wanted was company. 

Only, just as the count down to the dungeon starting flashed on her screen, she heard her discord ping with the sound of a new arrival in the voice channel. And then, that newly familiar voice spoke.

“Just checked the healer’s gear btw. This is going to be a disaster.”

Adora smiled. “Oh god, how bad is it?”

“Look, I’m not saying he just hit max level an hour ago, but, here ok, inspect him for me. Is that not a tanking trinket?”

Adora snorted. “Oh no, you’re _right._ Oh god is he in questing gear?”

Catra cackled. “Fuck me, I hope you weren’t expecting to get healed at all.”

“Me?” Adora asked, smirking, “I don’t _need_ healing.” She was very confident in her ability to mitigate damage and sustain herself. “You, on the other hand…”

“Hey, I can take care of myself,” Catra shot back, a challenge in her voice.

And with that, the barrier surrounding them dropped and they were off.

Freehold. A den of some of the most notorious pirates to sail the Kul Tiran seas. A safe harbour for those at odds with the law, and decidedly unsafe for any who thought to enforce it.

The first pull was simple. Adora tossed her shield, ricocheting it between enemies and drawing them to her position where she expertly herded them into a tight pack. Adora was right to be confident, she really needed no assistance from the healer. She remained steady on her feet, deflecting attacks as they came in and calling upon the power of the light to mend her wounds. 

She felt the rhythm building in her fingers, one ability flowing into the next, building holy power with small attacks and then dumping it into powerful defensive abilities or self healing. She could do this all day. Meanwhile, Catra had leapt into the middle of it all, thrashing and swiping in all directions, her primal wrath exploding against her enemies in a fountain of blood, her name rocketing up the damage meter, leaving the other dps in her dust.

“Holy shit,” Adora whispered to herself, then noticed she was pressing her push-to-talk key. The motion was so engrained in her she often found herself doing it when she said anything, whether it was meant to be heard or not. She heard Catra snort on the other end, making Adora blush.

A resident bonesaw attempted to treat an Irontide raider, but Adora shut him down with a shield to the face. Their teammate, a warrior, managed not to notice he was standing in a pool of suspicious toxic goop and, with their healer struggling to accomplish anything of note, he soon perished.

“Death number one,” Catra laughed. 

The remaining enemies leading up to the first boss presented similarly minimal challenge, at least to the two of them. Their resident hunter managed to somehow stray completely from the path Adora had led them down and managed to pull two entire mobs of unwanted enemies who immediately one shot him. 

“Seriously, how do you see your entire team chart a careful course as close to the wall as possible and conclude “Oh I guess I’ll just walk anywhere then,” Adora said. Catra laughed.

But Adora picked the extra pirates up after that and handled them fine, even pulling in more, holding 10 or more enemies at once, deliberately flexing her tanking abilities for Catra.

“Yeah, yeah, I see you,” Catra acknowledged. Adora grinned. She loved this. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

They reached the first boss and knew it could prove a touch harder than the trash packs they’d fought so far.

“But,” they reasoned, “as long as everyone stays alive, it really shouldn’t be an issue.”

About 30 seconds into the fight the warrior was dead, run down by Skycap’n Krag’s giant parrot, the same giant parrot responsible for those suspicious pools of toxic waste that had claimed him earlier.

“Well.” Catra said.

It would be slower going, but they still had two dps alive, so they’d get it done. That’s what Adora thought, until she saw their hunter’s dps on the damage meters.

“Uh, Catra?”

“What now.”

“Have you seen the damage the hunter is doing?”

“Mmmno I haven’t seen the damage the hunter is doin-oh my GOD.”

Their party’s hunter, was doing less than one third of Catra’s damage (which was still considerable even on a single target fight, Adora noted), and less even than Adora, the tank. 

“How is that, like, how is that even possible?” Adora asked.

“I genuinely have no idea. I checked his gear! It’s at least as good as mine! How do you even fail at Beastmastery’s rotation when it’s like, the easiest in the game.”

Adora’s head was in her hands. “Catra I’m so sorry I’ve done this to you.”

“You couldn’t have known. There’s no accounting for hunters.”

Adora was giggling. 

“Hey, nimrod!” Catra mock-shouted to their party member, who of course couldn’t actually hear her. “Which of your _three buttons_ are you _not_ pressing to be this fuckin’ garbage?”

Adora cackled. Catra continued to shout exaggerated insults at the hunter and when the boss finally died, she was almost in tears. Okay so, maybe Glimmer had been right. Catra definitely had a mouth on her. But she was fun. Adora could see why people would tune in to watch her, to listen to this kind of shit-talking.

The remaining enemies and bosses all proved similar. The warrior, or the hunter, or both, would die, neither of them would do much damage, and Catra and Adora would take down all the enemies while the healer stood off to the side, to his credit, managing to stay alive, but accomplishing very little with all the Rejuvenations and Swift Mends and Wild Growths he managed to cast. By the second boss Catra had remembered she was capable of resurrecting their fallen comrades in battle, (“Well, you can’t do that in arena,” and “The healer could’ve done it too!”) were her excuses,) in order to make the combat pass at least a little bit faster. But usually as soon as she’d managed to, the player she’d just rezzed stood in the path of some giant-tossed boulder or stepped nonchalantly into the mouth of a hungry shark, so she eventually stopped bothering. 

They did eventually make their way to the final boss when the healer, still to his credit keeping out of the way, kept a little too out of the way, and a stray gust from the boss’s swiftwind saber sent him flying back through the air and into a very large, very mean pack of pirates. Also to his credit, the healer did exactly the right thing in this situation: he stayed exactly there, cast no more spells, and died on the spot, so the offended pirates did not notice any of the other players and returned to their positions.

“Other players” at this point meaning precisely only Catra and Adora. The jokes had mostly run out by this point, and they were both pretty eager to get out of there, but with the healer’s death and Adora’s health finally starting to dip low, Catra let out a loud and deliberate sigh.

“Do I have to do everything around here?” she quipped, and swapped out of her cat form to cast a few heals on Adora. 

“Oh, my hero,” Adora said in mock gratitude.

They proceeded to finish off the final boss and the dungeon, significantly over the timer at this point, just the two of them. Adora proceeded to thank the healer who, _to his credit_ , really had done his best under the circumstances, and left the group.

“Ooooooooof,” was all Catra said.

“Again, I am so sorry.”

“Yeah, you sure know how to pick ‘em, huh.” 

“Hey maybe I just wanted to get you in your elf form,” was what Adora _almost_ said, but she didn’t, because that would be a ridiculous thing to say, to anyone, at any time.

Instead, she took a more subtle approach.

“Lemme make it up to you? Join me for a key tomorrow, or later this week, or whatever. I’ll put a proper group together and it’ll be nothing like that.”

“Hm, yeah, maybe. Shoot me a message if you see me on.”

Adora smiled. She’d get through to their newest recruit yet, would make sure she felt like a welcome and wanted part of their community. For the sake of the guild, obviously. “Okay! And thank you for that. I really needed the distraction.”

“’S’no problem. Needed one too.”

“Nice damage in there by the way,” Adora added, although she got no response. It was nearly half past midnight, and for once Adora felt sleep calling to her, her eyes growing heavy and her body relaxed.

“Well, I should get to bed. Goodnight, Catra.”

Silence for a few moments, then a quiet “G’nite,” from the other girl, just as Adora was about to hang up. 

Adora shut down her computer, shrugging off her jacket and tossing it aside. She changed into her sleepwear, a plain grey singlet and matching shorts and fell into bed. She lay there for several minutes, just starting to drift off when she became dimly aware of certain noises down the hall. _Oh come on._ She went to grab her headphones from her desk and lay back down, all the more grateful that for once, sleep found her easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pugging: not even once.
> 
> Please note that Catra's views on beastmastery hunters are not representative of my own, even if they are correct :^)
> 
> this chapter was not sponsored by tony hawk i swear


	3. Chapter 3

“Wait, I can get a whip in this game?”

“Yes!!” Entrapta answered gleefully. “The threaded cane is great for controlling large groups of enemies, which you’ll encounter a lot of at the start of the game. Plus it does serrated damage which is strong against beasts, and the range of its whip attacks lets you hit some bosses in the head where they’re much weaker.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Catra. “Guess I’m taking the whip.”

Now properly armed, Catra made short work of the scourge beast who had felled her earlier and ventured out into Yharnam. It hadn’t been how she’d intended to spend her Saturday, but in the absence of the game she wanted to play Entrapta had convinced Catra to play one of her own favourites. “Forbidden histories, maddening revelations, cosmic discoveries that doom an entire world!” Entrapta had espoused the many joys of Bloodborne’s plot, while trying not to spoil too much. Catra had joked, “You know those are bad things, right?”, but it had intrigued her. As Catra explored the game’s twisting environments, fending off blood addled villagers, their conversation turned to the guild they both now found themselves a part of.

“So… you’ve been part of _Grayskull_ longer than I have. Are they like, actually all that good or is it all talk?”

Entrapta answered her with her own question, “Well, you ran that key with Adora didn’t you? Wasn’t she a good tank?”

“Yeah... she was pretty good.” Catra thought back to the other night. Adora had been more than pretty good, she could have practically soloed that dungeon. Catra also thought back to how she’d clammed up when the other girl had praised her own performance at the end of the night. It wasn’t something she was used to. No one had praised her growing up, and it was part of why she had gravitated towards more competitive aspects of the game like PvP. When she won in Arena, no one had to tell her she was good. It was indisputable. Her greatness was inflicted on them.

“Wait, how do you even know we ran a key?” 

“Oh, I set up a program to scrape data from Raider.io on all guild members’ dungeon history and compile it into a spreadsheet. Officially it’s so if someone hasn’t completed a high enough level dungeon before the end of the week we can see that and help them get one done, which just helps us optimise the gearing process. But there’s lots of fascinating data there too, like which groups struggle and with which dungeons, or who spends most of their time playing with who.”

“Entrapta you are the panopticon of people.”

“ _I know right!_ ” Entrapta shouted and spun around in her chair, cackling.

Catra laughed with her friend, taking her eyes off the screen just as a large huntsman jumped out from around a corner and took a chunk out of her health.

“Shit! Hold on I gotta concentrate.” Catra focused intently on the screen, keeping her distance from the enemy until she saw it winding up an attack. Then she quickly dodged in and around it, and swung at it from behind, taking it down. “Nailed it.”

“So, sure Adora’s good, I guess. But what about the others?” Catra asked.

“Oh, they vary. I mean, they’re all basically pretty good players. I can show you the raid logs, most of them parse pretty highly. But a lot of them could be… more optimal.”

Catra snorted. “Don’t worry Entrapta, I’m sure you’ll figure out how to automate them next.”

“Oh, automating combat in WoW isn’t hard to do, but where’s the fun in that? It’s the human element that’s truly fascinating.”

Catra shrugged. “If you say so. Personally I’m mostly a fan of the part where I win. Other players have generally proved a liability in that.”

\-------------------------------

“Sea Hawk we’ve been walking for an hour! How much farther is this place and how do you intend to make it up to me when it’s not at all worth it,” Mermista complained, as she had done every 15 minutes or so of their short hike.

“Just a little bit farther my sweet Mermista, I promise,” Sea Hawk reassured her.

“Nothing could be worth walking for an hour,” Glimmer grumbled.

“Glimmer, I’ve known you to drive _next door_. A hike is not going to kill you,” Adora said.

“Uh yeah, because it’s faster? Some of us value our time, Adora.”

“At least we know the walk back is going to be all downhill,” said Bow, ever the optimist.

“Ohmigod I forgot we had to walk back,” moaned Glimmer, losing the last of her sanity.

They walked on until at last they came to an area Sea Hawk seemed to recognise. Though they had been walking uphill the entire way, they now found themselves at the entrance of something like a valley, with steeper hills rising on either side. He motioned them to hurry and as they rounded one last boulder Adora saw what all the fuss had been about. A shimmering pool of crystal clear water lay nestled between the rocks, a little larger than a swimming pool. A small waterfall ran into it off one of the higher boulders.

“Ta-dah!” cried Sea Hawk. “Mermista, isn’t it perfect?”

“I uh- wow. Yeah this is like, beautiful,” said Mermista, stunned. Sea Hawk grinned.

They all just stood and looked in awe for a while, the only sound that of frogs and crickets in the underbrush, and unseen birds somewhere in the trees above that partially shaded the area. Dappled sunlight broke through their canopies, warming the rocks they stood on and catching in the almost non-existent ripples of the pool before them. Finally, Glimmer broke the near-silence.

“Sea Hawk, how did you even find this place?” she asked, scrambling down the rocks to get a closer look at the pool.

“What do you mean? I’m always telling you I’m going on adventures,” said Sea Hawk.

“Yeah but we thought you meant like, smoking weed and going to Mcdonalds,” replied Bow.

“Going to Mcdonalds with me is an adventure!” Sea Hawk cried.

“Ugh it’s true, one time he challenged the soft serve machine to a duel,” Mermista told them.

“He was a slippery fellow, and I would have had him too if not for-” 

Bow cut him off, much to Mermista’s relief. “Wait, Sea Hawk, how exactly did you intend for us to swim? This was a surprise, so none of us brought our bathing suits.”

“Skinny dipping! The ultimate bonding experience, the truest expression of friendship and adventure and… ah. I see by your expressions that we’re not quite there yet. Well, not to worry I packed all of your bathing suits in preparation for this eventuality. I have them right here.” Sea Hawk patted the large sports bag slung over his shoulder.

“Wh- h- why and how did you manage that?” Adora asked.

“I’m **s n e a k y**!" Sea Hawk shouted, raising a pointed finger to the sky.

“Clearly,” Bow laughed. Sea Hawk had been a Rogue main for as long as any of them had known him. He’d clearly taken the role to heart.

They all took their suits and went off to find places to change. When Adora got back, Glimmer and Bow were already swimming and she carefully slid herself down the rocks to join them. The water was warm, like the rocks around it. 

“This is…” Adora let out a long, relaxed sigh.

“Incredible, right?” said Sea Hawk, re-emerging from the scrub. “I’m telling you, it feels even better naked.” Mermista, who had emerged with him punched him in the shoulder.

“No one is getting naked, Sea Hawk!” she shouted.

“Yeah yeah, I was just saying.”

The two of them joined the others in the pool. Sea Hawk found a rock to relax on as Mermista began swimming laps. She was graceful, her movements effortless, a stark contrast to the girl who had complained all the way walking up the hill. Seeing her now, Adora thought she seemed as though she belonged in the water, and not on land at all. 

Adora swam a couple laps herself, taking note of the tiny fish that populated the pool and darted into the rocks when she came near. She wondered how they even got here. She was perched on a rock in the shallows watching them when Glimmer swam over and perched next to her.

“Hey, whatcha lookin at?” Glimmer asked.

“Fish,” Adora said, concentrating intensely.

“Woah, really? How’d they get here?”

“That’s what I was wonderin’.”

The five of them swam for several hours, and then splayed themselves out on the rocks, sunbathing like lizards.

“I wish I could stay here forever,” said Glimmer, her voice warm like the sunlight draped over their bodies.

\-------------------------------

Chat: Wait did you start a guild?

Chat: Oh shit Catra’s in a guild. Can I join?

Chat: wtf you in a guild for. 

pvp guild?

you doin rated battlegrounds now?

wtf is a Gay Skull

it says Grayskull, stupid

it might still be a gay gray skull! don’t fucking assume!

Catra’s audience had to be the worst part of streaming. It was too bad they were also kind of the most essential part.

“Fucking hell. Yes, I joined a guild. It’s a raiding guild, I’m gonna raid next expac.”

wtf you raiding for

betrayal :/

pog

does this mean we get raiding streams as well as arena now?

yeah are u gonna stream raid? I would watch u raid

Actually, Catra hadn’t really thought about it. Streaming her arena matches had never been a problem, she’d asked both her partners and Double Trouble loved to perform so of course they were okay with it, and Rogelio hardly ever spoke anyway so it didn’t make much difference to him. But the raid team consisted of seventeen additional people, and it seemed unlikely that all of them would be happy being thrust into a (fairly minor, Catra had to admit) online spotlight like that. 

But, besides actually playing the game, making content about it had become one of Catra’s favourite past times. Besides her twitch, she also had a youtube channel where she posted mostly compilations of her arena matches, but sometimes whatever other random wow-related video ideas she had. Some of them even went viral from time to time. If she couldn’t stream their raids live, maybe she could at least record them and see if she could do anything with the footage. 

“Probably can’t stream them. But keep an eye out, might have something else in store.”

\-----------------------------------

“Hey, do you wanna stay the night?” 

Adora woke to Glimmer gently shaking her awake from where she had dozed off in the passenger seat of her car. It had been dark by the time they’d all made it back, but now the others were nowhere to be seen.

“Mermista and Seahawk had other plans for the evening, and Bow has an early shift tomorrow. It’s just us.”

“Mmm,” Adora mumbled groggily.

“Is that a yes? I can take you home if you want.”

“Mmno. Sleepover.” 

“Great!”

Glimmer’s apartment complex was near the city centre, overlooking the most popular shopping districts and with a view across the bay and to the mountains beyond. Her apartment was decorated, of course, in perfect pastel tones, primarily pinks pulled together by pale blues and purples with gold highlights. It was impeccable, in stark contrast to Adora’s mostly undecorated bedroom at home. 

Adora was still half asleep as they stumbled inside, and Glimmer immediately set about making a pot of tea for the two of them as Adora collapsed on the couch.

“How are you feeling?” Glimmer called from the kitchen.

“Huh? I’m good, why?” 

“You did a lot of swimming. Is your shoulder okay?”

“Oh.” It ached. “Yeah, it’s fine. The doctors say I need to exercise it, and swimming’s low-impact.”

“Everything’s low impact compared to hitting fast balls I guess.”

“So what you’re saying is I should take up boxing.”

“ _No_ , Adora. No hitting of any kind.”

“But I _like_ hitting. I was good at it,” Adora pouted.

Glimmer sighed. “I know, Adora. But it’s not all you’re good at.”

“Yeah yeah, I know. Do you need any help over there?” Adora asked, changing the subject.

“Can you grab the milk? My hands are full.” Glimmer wandered over, a pot of tea in one hand and a pair of cups in the other. Adora went to the fridge, careful to lift the gallon jug with her left arm, rather than the still sore right one.

“Do you wanna play something?” Glimmer asked from the couch. “Mario Kart? Smash? DOOM??”

“Hm, I’m kind of tired, can we just watch a movie? We can watch your favourite.” 

Glimmer’s eyes lit up. “The Princess Bride? Yesss let’s fucking GO.”

Adora settled into the couch as the movie started and Glimmer poured the tea. It was, unsurprisingly, really good, a personal blend that Glimmer herself had designed at a local artisanal tea shop that allowed that kind of thing, and Adora felt herself relaxing with every sip.

Fifteen minutes into the movie Adora felt some of that tension creeping back into her muscles as she became dimly aware of eyes on her. She turned to Glimmer,

“What?”

“Oh!” said Glimmer startled, “Nothing, sorry.”

“Glimmer, what is it.”

“Just, your hair…”

Adora sighed. Glimmer was always on her to take better care of her hair, but it just wasn’t something she could bring herself to invest in. Why brush it if it wasn’t gonna stay brushed? Why untangle it if it was just gonna get tangled again? Adora didn’t really get why it mattered, but clearly it did to Glimmer.

“Do you wanna brush it?”

“Yes! I’ll go get my things,” Glimmer shouted and practically vanished from the room. Adora chuckled. This was definitely the plan all along. 

Adora pulled out her hair tie and dropped down into the customary position, on the floor in front of the couch as Glimmer came running back into the room with whatever fancy equipment she felt she needed to fix Adora’s hair this time. This was Adora’s other problem, the cheaper brushes just pulled at her hair and she wasn’t about to drop the money on whatever magic product Glimmer used that worked so well when she knew she could just come here and get that treatment for free. 

Glimmer hopped back onto the couch, sitting cross legged and gently pulling Adora’s head back into her lap before getting to work. Adora let herself relax into it, the soft bristles of the brush massaging her scalp and Glimmer’s fingers playing through her hair as she tilted her head side to side to get a better angle. 

Adora had missed this. They just hadn’t had that much time together lately. She felt guilty about it, and it was part of why she’d insisted on watching Glimmer’s favourite together. Between that and their little hair brushing routine, it felt just like old times.

Every now and then Glimmer would get to work on a particularly stubborn knot and Adora would let her displeasure be known.

“Ow.”

“Ow.”

“Ow.”

“Adora, oh my god.”

“Well it hurts.”

“You’re a big girl, you’ll be ok.”

Adora grinned. “You promise?” she asked, tilting her head back to look up at Glimmer.

“ _Not_ if you keep moving. _Please_ sit still or I’m gonna brush your eyeball.”

When Glimmer was done and Adora was back on the couch, she didn’t pay that much attention to the movie. Thanks to Glimmer, she’d seen it at least twenty times before, and although she’d certainly admit it was a good one she wasn’t quite obsessed the way Glimmer was. Glimmer, who knew all the lines, the blocking of every fight, who still laughed at the jokes the hundredth time she heard them and still teared up at all the emotional moments. She was at least as entertaining as the movie itself.

Adora understood the concept of a comfort flick, but she’d never really had one. She’d only ever found comfort in being good at things, and as far as she could tell, you couldn’t be good at a movie. Although if you could, Glimmer was definitely good at this one. Also, Adora wasn’t that great at sitting still. She needed distraction, engagement. In the absence of those things, she became one of two things; agitated, or sleepy. At the moment, in the calming presence of her friend, it was the latter. She felt her eyelids getting heavy as she slowly slumped in her seat until

She’s gently shaken awake by Glimmer for the second time that day. 

“Adora. Hey.”

“Heyyy Glimmer.”

“I need to go to bed.” 

“Okayy. Goodnight Glimmer.”

“No, Adora, I need you to move.”

“Oh.” She sat up clumsily, removing her head from Glimmer’s lap. “Sorry.” She shifted and lay back down the other way, resting her head on the armrest.

“Don’t sleep on the couch Adora, what would your physio say. Come on.” Glimmer extended a hand to her, which she sleepily took, and led her to her room.

“Jacket,” Glimmer reminded her, so she shrugged it off. Glimmer crawled into the bed, pulling Adora in beside her. “G’night.” 

Adora lay there for a while, trying to sleep. But a thought was stirring up her mind, and she only found herself feeling more awake.

“Hey Glim?”

“Yeah?” Glimmer responded, half opening her eyes.

“Why do you dislike Catra?” Adora asked, hesitantly. 

“Seriously? You’re asking this now?” Her eyes weren’t half-lidded anymore.

“I guess. I’m thinking about it now and I’m just gonna lay awake otherwise.”

“Right, because you’ve had so much trouble sleeping so far today.” Glimmer had a point, and Adora was grateful for it. She simply slept better when she was with friends. “But, fine, ok. I mean you’ve seen her in guild now right? She doesn’t engage. We said we wanted a friendly atmosphere.”

“Were you expecting Hordak to engage? But you still wanted to invite him, because we all know he’s a strong player.”

“That’s… that’s kind of a courtesy to Entrapta.”

“Well, yeah, I know. But Catra is Entrapta’s friend too, and Scorpia’s. It just sounded like there was more to it than that? Besides, I uh, I got her to engage.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah we like, ran a key the other night.”

“Wow, ok. How… how was it? What was she like? Why wasn’t I invited?” 

“It was late, you weren’t online and… it was good. She was really funny.”

Glimmer chuckled. “Yeah, yeah she is.”

“Hey, I’ll make sure you’re there for the next one.” Adora gave Glimmer a quick nudge of support.

“Thanks.” 

“You uh, used to know her or something, didn’t you?” Adora asked, cautiously.

“I didn’t really “know” her. I mean, it was one sided. I watched her streams, from shortly after you got me into WoW actually… There aren’t like, that many female WoW streamers right, and she’s openly gay, so she was just the one I gravitated towards,” Adora did not know that. Grayskull was already a pretty queer guild, but it was always nice to have more gay friends. “We interacted sometimes. I doubt she remembers me.”

“You never mentioned her.”

Adora thought Glimmer might have blushed, but it was too dark to be sure.

“It was- I don’t know. I don’t have to tell you about all my interests, do I?”

“No, of course not.” But she must have told Bow, hadn’t she? Adora didn’t linger on it, but it still struck her as odd. “But, something happened, right?”

Glimmer didn’t respond for a long time. Adora gave her a poke. “Hey. Was it really that bad?”

Glimmer laughed, a hint of bitterness in her. “No, it was…” she sighed. “It was just embarrassing. Please don’t laugh. I’ll die if you laugh.”

“I promise.” 

“Catra was doing viewer keys. You know, inviting people from her audience to come and run dungeons with her? Lots of streamers do it. And this was like, a little over a year ago?”

“Ah.” Adora thought she could see where this was going. “You’d only just switched to mage.”

“...yeah.” When Glimmer had first started playing, she’d rolled a warrior. The instinct to smash… was strong in her. “I’d only been playing the mage for a month, and I’d only _just_ started trying Arcane. I was not good at it. You remember. I had no idea what I was doing, I kept running out of mana and I had to stop and drink to recover and the group just kept moving on without me.”

“And… and I wasn’t used to playing ranged, I wasn’t used to being so vulnerable as a cloth wearer, I wasn’t familiar with mage’s defensive options, I was used to being able to take a couple of hits without issue. So I just kept dying! It was so embarrassing, fifteen minutes into the dungeon and I was on the verge of tears.”

“Oh my god, Glimmer.”

“Don’t laugh!” Glimmer shouted, giving Adora a playful shove in the shoulder. It’s her left.

“I’m not laughing! That sounds awful.” She _was_ having to hold back laughter though. It’s not like it was vindictive! But this whole thing was just _so_ Glimmer, and Adora felt fondness swelling in her chest. It was that feeling which threatened to spill out as laughter.

“It gets worse. So it was an Underrot key, and we were up to the third boss, and I was so focused on trying to do good damage for once that I didn’t dodge the spores and I died again and…” Glimmer took a deep breath. “And Catra says, -

\- Hey mage, why don’t you just stay dead. This will probably be faster without you.”

“Oh, jeez,” exhaled Adora. “That was really brutal of her Glimmer, I’m sorry.” 

“Yeah… It kinda fucked me up for a while.”

“I’m actually kind of mad at her. She should apologise.”

“No! You can’t mention this to her. I don’t think she has any idea that was me and… it’s just too embarrassing. Please? Promise you won’t.”

“Okay, okay. I won’t.”

“Thanks… and thanks for not laughing.”

“Hey,” she gave Glimmer’s arm a comforting squeeze. “I would never laugh at you.”

“Thanks, Ador-” 

“...but if we could like, schedule some time in the future when you were feeling better for you to laugh _with_ me about this I’d really appreciate it because fuck, Glimmer, it’s a really funny story.”

Glimmer snorted. “You piece of shit. I bare my _soul_ to you and this is what I get?”

“You got dunked on for being bad, princess. Let’s not exaggerate.”

Glimmer let out a high pitched gasp, a fire igniting in her eyes. “Elitist trash,” she said, holding back laughter as she gave Adora another shove. 

“Casual.”

“How fucking dare.”

“Get good then.”

“I _DID_.”

“Yeah. Yeah you did.” Adora beamed. “I’m so proud of you.” 

That little outburst of sincerity caught Glimmer off guard. Her eyes widened for a moment, trying and failing to stammer out some response. Her expression softened. “Adora…” A final half-hearted shove, but Adora’s ready this time. She catches it.

“Hey. No hitting of any kind, remember? If I’m not allowed neither are you.”

Glimmer pouted. “But I _like_ hitting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! The full trajectory of the story has been kind of shifting since I posted chapter 2 so I spent at least as much time these past few weeks thinking about and writing snippets for chapters other than this one as I did actually writing this. This chapter was originally very different and I had most of a chapter four written which I've now totally discarded.
> 
> Shadowlands *finally* launches in a week, so you can probably expect chapter 4 a couple of weeks after that. The irony being that I need SL out to write the chapter, but it's also going to be the main thing keeping me from writing it for at least a little while lmao.
> 
> The other main reason for the delay is that I started working on another short She-ra fic about Adora as a long distance truck driver and Catra as the runaway she picks up. It was meant to be a quick one shot to occupy me before I could get back to this story, but then it turned into a little mini series so I'm gonna be writing them concurrently for a little while. [You can read that here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27430294) if you'd like to.


End file.
